When Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans, one of the most shocking stories to come from the storm- and flood-ravaged region was that of the mass lack of preparedness of area nursing homes. At one facility, 35 residents died during the storm, with some believed to...
Nursing Home Negligence
Hackensack nursing home abuse may increase with aging population
The baby boomers are retiring, and advances in medicine are keeping people alive longer than ever before. New vaccines and breakthrough medicines will continue to develop, increasing the number of elderly Americans. An increase in the number of older Americans will...
Nursing home employees penalized for abuse of resident
Two nursing home employees have lost their medical licenses after pleading guilty to endangering the welfare of an incompetent person and willful violation of health laws. For one of the employees, this was her third citation for nursing home negligence, which makes...
New Jersey ranks low in nursing home care
In a recent ranking of all 50 U.S. states, New Jersey fell in the bottom 10 states in terms of the percentage of nursing home patients who develop bedsores or are hospitalized for an injury or illness related to their nursing home care. If New Jersey had the level of...
Negligent recordkeeping causes injury at nursing homes, part two
Earlier this week, we began a discussion of insufficient and intentionally falsified medical care records in nursing homes. This all-too-common occurrence has been brought to light with a recent lawsuit in which the husband of a deceased woman alleged that her death...
Negligent recordkeeping causes injury at nursing homes, part one
New Jersey families who have made the difficult decision to place a parent in a nursing home know of the shift that occurs once your loved one is officially under the care of the nursing home staff. When you are no longer tasked with your loved one's daily care,...
Nursing home ratings show persistent neglect
A local newspaper investigation has revealed that the overwhelming majority of nursing homes in several New Jersey counties are consistently receiving low ratings from the federal agency tasked with evaluating the facilities. Violations that led to the low ratings are...
Nursing home abuse spurs New Jersey wrongful death suit
Back in March, we wrote about a sad instance of nursing home abuse in which an undercover 'granny cam' showed a staff member at a New Jersey nursing home striking an elderly resident, removing her oxygen max unnecessarily, and otherwise harming the 87-year-old woman....
Nursing homes improperly treat dementia with antipsychotic drugs
With the struggling economy, it seems that everyone is feeling the pinch. Nursing homes are not immune to dealing with a tightened budget, with cuts in state and federal aid and slashes in funding all too common these days. However, a new report indicates that New...
Reporting nursing home neglect
Many different emotions usually play into a decision to place a loved one into a nursing home or assisted care facility. Feelings of guilt, abandonment, sadness and sorrow are usually involved, as well as anger and frustration. However, what most people don't...